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quietus [soylentnews.org] writes:

“After years of promises and years of lip service, we finally have all the funding needed, all the approvals, all the permits, all the union workers, and there’s only one thing left to do now to get this party started.

We need to build it. And that starts today.”

U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., April 22, Las Vegas.

Ho-ho-ho. It looks like America is going to get its first real high-speed rail train.

On Monday, April 22, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg officially opened [lasvegassun.com] the start of the works for the Brightline West High-Speed Rail Project. The 218-mile rail line will operate between Las Vegas, Nevada, and Rancho Cucamonga, California, and will be a fully electric, zero-emission system.

The high-speed train should average an 186 miles an hour speed, bringing the overland travel time between Las Vegas and Los Angeles down from 4 to 2 hours. To do so, 195 miles (315 km) of new track needs to be laid down to exacting standards, on the mid-shoulder of Interstate 15. There will be stations in Las Vegas, Victor Valley, Hesperia and Rancho Cucamonga, California. The line should be fully operational by 2028, in time for the Olympic Games.

Funding, to the tune of 12 billion dollar, comes half from private industry, and half from the Federal Government ($6.5 billion in grants and financing). An estimated 35,000 jobs, including 10,000 direct union construction jobs, and 1,000 permanent jobs once the line is operational, are associated with the project initiated by Brightline, a company which already runs a train service between Miami and Orlando.

“Today answers the question that has been asked too often, likely,” Buttigieg said [transportation.gov] during the groundbreaking ceremony.

“The question whether America can still build massive, forward-looking engineering marvels that make people’s lives better for generations … and this is just the start.”

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